Trust
by Raine Leonhart
Summary: Rita Mordio could not trust people.
1. Could not

_Rita Mordio could not trust people._

It was basic. It was how she lived her life and everyone knew it.

It was... a law.

People lied. They cheated, they murdered; they stole, abandoned others, stabbed each other in the backs, and left them for dead.

The first memory she could remember was of herself at a young age, lying on her stomach and reading a book. It wasn't the average picture book for children, or short, easy-to-read novels. It was a large, thick volume on the world's blastia. How they functioned, who excavated them, when they began to be put to use, different types... It was all in that one thick, heavy book.

Of course, at the age of four (or somewhere around there - maybe she was 3 at the time? Who knows? She's a genius anyway.), the majority of the words in that volume she could not understand. She could only remember words like "blastia," "world," and "core," not forgetting the articles in between.

Anyway.

She couldn't remember anything about her parents. They were nameless, faceless, soulless beings to her. They probably died or ran off, leaving baby Rita at the entrance of Aspio. Sometimes, though, she liked to imagine that they were valiant fighters protecting their child: her father a grand mage from Aspio, exiled for a crime he did not commit, and her mother a beautiful woman from Halure he met along his search to redeem his name.

But those were just childish fairytales she conjured up until the age of eight, when she told herself _no_, her father left and her mother died and she was abandoned, left all alone to wait for someone else to raise her up.

Growing up in a large house in Aspio without any parents was very... annoying, to put it. The mages, at first, mostly cooed over her when she was a child. Young, cute, chubby cheeks and chubby limbs were all she was worth, with a promising future as an Aspian mage. Then, she started to read, and everything she observed got sucked into her brain like a black hole. Everyone who took care of her took notice of her rapidly growing intelligence, quickly taking pride in all of her work.

But then, slowly, one by one, her caretakers started to disappear.

Nobody knew why at first. Perhaps they had gotten into an accident while outside of the barrier? Or maybe they were lost out there? After all, it wasn't often that people left cities.

When the fourth person went missing, rumours began to spread around.

She was a demon. She killed them all. She ate them for breakfast. She lured the paranormal into the house to whisk them away, never to be seen again.

She was not someone to get close to.

They all disappeared within three months, and she was just nine years old. Ten Aspian mages, all female, mysteriously gone.

And when she needed someone the most, someone to talk to, to have a shoulder to cry on, everyone was too scared of her.

So, she put on a brave face. She took all her belongings and moved into a smaller house in the corner of the city. No one even seemed to question how a nine-year-old could manage on their own.

And it took months before all of Aspio found the reason of the mysterious disappearances - murder. Nobody wondered why it took so long to find it out. Some say it was a crazed psychopath with multi-coloured hair. Others say it was a blood-hungry man with cropped silver hair, using others for his own sickening experiments.

That didn't matter to the mages, though. They were all still weary of the young genius - some superstitious. Were those women killed because someone was after her? The young genius mage was steadily learning - no mage dared to get close, but studies were discussed between them none the less.

And then, just when she thought she'd made a friend - someone she could trust - everything went downhill.

She told her her secrets, her feelings, everything that had been bottled up inside of her for so long. She wanted to meet her parents. She wanted to become a great mage and help the world. She'd never had any friends before. There was this boy down the street...

She was her first friend, her only friend, and her best friend.

And on that friend's birthday, she gave her a gift - something she had kept with her for a long time: a golden blastia set as a choker, fitted with a crimson core.

But, what did Rita get in return?

Scars on her back and a dead "friend" - if she could be called one.

She hadn't meant to kill her. It wasn't supposed to be that way, but it happened. What else was she supposed to do when she was being attacked in her own home? Rita couldn't exactly just let her stab her back as many times as she wanted.

So what did she do? What would any mage with artes do?

She set her on fire.

She had only meant to burn her hand, her arm, just enough to release her grip on the knife, but it spread all over her. Her clothes caught on fire, her hair caught on fire, she was screaming and screaming and Rita could do nothing but stare at her in horror. It was only when the girl dropped to the floor and started rolling did Rita come to her senses; instantly, water poured over the burning girl and the flames hissed as they disappeared.

It was only because someone was passing by that something was done, and by then, Rita had lost consciousness. She would have been left for dead had they not been there, and all of Aspio would be oblivious until the citizens started looking for the _girl who was not Rita Mordio_.

She realized something when she woke up wrapped in bandages in an empty room.

People only get hurt when they get close to other people. They get abandoned and they get killed and they are left alone to die, watching the people they care about most turn their backs on them and walk away.

Blastia could not get up and abandon you. Blastia could not suddenly decide to stab you in the back and leave you to die. Blastia could not spread around all your secrets.

Blastia could be trusted - people could not.

Rita Mordio could not trust people, so she trusted blastia instead.


	2. Would not

_Rita Mordio would not trust people._

Even after fighting battle after battle before, in, and after the Shaikos Ruins, Rita was still weary of the man who looked like a girl, still weary of the pink-haired princess and the cowardly brat and the one-eyed dog.

They broke into her house, accused her of being a thief, called her a _thing,_ and travelled with a dog that was _too smart to be a dog_.

The girly man, she mused, could make a clean cut at her neck if he wanted to - but, he had to be faster than she was, first. The pink-haired noble was, undecidedly, not much of a threat. She had some skills with a sword, that much credit Rita could give, but she _probably_ did not have the guts to kill a comrade.

The brat wasn't much of a threat either - he was too slow, he trembled in fear the second he saw her in her own home, and he could barely keep his weapon up past his hip. If he tried anything on her, she would easily kick his ass within three seconds.

She was most weary of the agile canine. He was fast and carried a damned _weapon_ in his mouth. A _weapon_. Normal dogs didn't fight with weapons, they fought with their claws and their teeth, ripping their prey up into shreds with the strength of their jaws. A joint attack from the girly man and the one-eyed dog would surely be an instant death for her.

Rita most certainly did not want to die; there was so much more for her to see in this world. She was not going to be killed by the hands of these people, even if something inside her told her that they would do no such thing. For now, she could not believe that tiny voice.

So maybe these people weren't like her old _friend_. Maybe there was a chance these people could actually be _trusted_.

She didn't want to stay locked up in her home again. For once in many years, she was treated like an equal, treated like a child. In Aspio, no one dared to look down upon her - no one dared to get close to her. It was as if they were... _frightened_ of her.

Her research was only part of her reason, but she just...

She just didn't want to be left alone again.

So she forced her presence on their party and stated, rather loudly, that she would be travelling with them. She got nervous and began to ramble, not knowing what to say until the pink-haired noble (Estellise, her name was?) grabbed her hand and told her all she needed to say was "Please take care of me."*

Rita Mordio would not trust people, but she could always start trying.

*This is when she joins Yuri and the others in the manga, not in the game.


	3. Could

_Rita Mordio could trust people._

She doesn't know when it started, really, when she came to realize how much she depended on this motley crew_._ Sometimes it felt like it had been years since she met Yuri and the others.

Other times, she remembers it as if it were just yesterday.

She knows she can rely on Estelle (she's long since stopped calling her Estellise and can't remember when) and let her in on whatever may be upsetting her. Estelle is, Rita supposes, the first true friend she's ever had. If anything's bothering her, the pink-haired princess is sure to come to her aid and do her best to make her feel at ease and comfortable. Not just her, but for anyone else. She has _some_ annoying points to her, but more often than not she just latches herself onto someone and grows and grows until her presence no longer bothers them.

And with the way Estelle was just described, Rita wonders if whether or not she just called her a _parasite_ of some sort.

She trusts Yuri because he's the leader of the group. He watches out for everyone and anyone (as long as they're doing what's right rather than wrong) and doesn't hesitate to put his life on the line for someone else.

Rita can't think of anything more to describe him - everything about him was summarized into two sentences. That's rather... _boring_, to put it bluntly.

She trusts the shorty because he's... well, she doesn't quite know why she trusts him. She only knows that if he lets anything, _anything_ about her slip through his lips that she wants no one to hear, he'd be on the ground in two seconds at the most. Except it's the important things he would never say - she knows when he listens in on her conversations with Estelle sometimes, and she knows that he can keep things to himself. (If he couldn't he'd probably be dead by now or... something.) The first time she noticed him eavesdropping, she grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and demanded to know exactly what it was he heard. He told her he heard absolutely nothing and called for help when she didn't let him go.

He's a brat and a loudmouth and often not very bright, but she supposes that Karol is a good kid. A bit of a wuss, but still a good kid.

The dog... Rita never was a fan of dogs. They slobbered and they barked and they chased anything that caught their interest. So _maybe_ Repede could fight, _maybe_ he watched everyone's backs, and _maybe_ he wasn't like all the other dogs Rita had seen. She trusted him enough to pet him when no one was looking (and _he_ trusted_ her_ enough to let her pet him) and let him watch her back, but that didn't mean she was willing to eat something that was covered in dog saliva and was once in the dog's mouth. That was just kind of... _ew_.

She likes (some) dogs now, but she won't ever show it in front of everyone else. _Ever_. That's just... too embarrassing.

The old man was weird. He came and he went whenever he felt like it, and now in Myorzo he just... suddenly disappeared. Rita could partially trust him, only for now. He could fight and he watched their backs and he helped them with a lot of things, but he was still suspicious. He looked like someone she saw once, an orange knight or something who wore his hair down. She can't remember much else - she rarely pays attention to people when she thinks. People are too distracting.

She wonders if there's some kind of relation between the knight and the fool, but shrugs it off. Raven is too much of a fool to be a knight, and too foolish to be so... serious-looking.

Rita wasn't sure about trusting Judith at first. She used a spear much like that dragon-freak and always eluded any questions directed to her. She fought by their side but... that was kind of it. Then, when she destroyed the Fierta's blastia, Rita was _more_ than mad; she was _furious!_ There she had been standing next to her, the person who destroyed all those blastia, and she didn't even realize it! Not to mention that she was... well, to put it bluntly, _hurt_ because Judith didn't tell any of them about that fact. That Yuri, he knew! He knew and he didn't tell them! Judith could have told her beforehand about the Hermes blastia before destroying them - that way, Rita could have been able to do something to fix them!

Rita knows why now, and as long as Judith trusts her skills with blastia, she's okay with what she did in the past. After all, she can't change the past... right?

And Ba'ul... It may seem a little weird, but Rita trusts Ba'ul too - she trusts that he won't roll over in the air and drop them in the ocean or high above land. He may not be able to help them fight, and he may not be able to cook, but he's there for them and that's really all that matters because she doesn't think Ba'ul's the type of Entelexeia to suddenly abandon all of them - especially Judith - for no reason.

(Rita is scar-_hates_ heights, and sometimes she wonders if Ba'ul can sense her fe-_dislike_ of heights. Judith knows of how much she hates heights too, and Rita hopes she asked Ba'ul to make the flight as smooth as possible without any extra reminders that they are in the _sky_ and _very_ far away from the ground.)

Rita Mordio could trust people, but with Estelle and Raven missing, something was definitely fishy.


	4. Hate

_Rita Mordio hated trusting people._

Damn, damn,_ damn!_ She should have known better! She was Rita Mordio, _genius_ mage - she should have noticed it!

He was crazy and insane. He was a fool. He was stupid. He was in a guild. He used a bow and not a sword. He was suspicious. There was_ no way_ that Raven, the perverted idiot from Altosk that travelled with Brave Vesperia, was a knight and would betray them. It just wasn't possible, but it was.

He'd been spying on them. He kidnapped Estelle and just handed her to Alexei, and Alexei was an evil bastard. He was a knight for said evil bastard. They'd _finally_ started seeing him as a comrade and not some shifty old man, and he turned around and stabbed them in the back.

And to Rita, she couldn't think of anything to describe the feeling except for that it hurt like _hell_.

She'd believed he would watch all of their backs. She'd relied on him to keep watch while they were all sleeping. She trusted him not to poison their food, being the suspicious old fool he was.

And during _all_ of those times, he'd had multiple chances to cut their throats without warning.

She was foolish to let her guard down. She was foolish for trusting him. She was foolish for considering him to be friend and not foe.

She was ridiculous for hoping that he was not seriously a knight in Baction. She was absurd for thinking he was still a friend.

She was _insane_ for thinking that he would escape with them.

Now Yuri grimly stared at the rubble in front of him as he leaned on his sword, panting. Repede sat beside him without a sound, staring too at the ruins before him. Karol was silent, sniffling here and there; his axe lay on the ground by his feet. Judith frowned with her spear in hand, a crease wrinkling her brow. Rita herself was sullen and wary. Her arms were crossed and she was glaring at the ground as if she were deep in thought. Alexei still had Estelle in his clutches, and Raven... No.

Schwann Oltorain was dead.

Sometimes, Rita Mordio _hated_ trusting people.


	5. Relief

Hello! I'm sorry I took so long to update - I've been occupied with all this crap called "school" and "piano exams" and "looking for jobs and failing to get hired" and "Tales of the Abyss" and "Final Fantasy 7 Crisis Core" and "One Piece" (everything seems to need more One Piece these days. I've gotten super addicted again...) and yaddayaddayadda.

I plan on updating as much as I can for the rest of the summer break (but I'm not too sure how well that will turn out so let's see - I'm trying for another chapter today) and um... yeah.

A few changes were made in the first chapter recently - little errors were fixed and Rita's gift went from being a brooch to being her very own blastia. Um... yeah.

As a last note: **A big ****thank you** to **Lupanari**,** Jyuuha**, and **Mei Fire** for reviewing this story! I would have been sad without you guys because, well, I wouldn't have any reviews! I went a long time without any ;o; So thank you very much, and on with this (short) update!

* * *

Raven was gone - dead, most likely - and Estelle was _still_ held captive by Alexei.

Rita paced in the Fiertia's cabin. The old man was dead. That idiot was dead. Raven was dead. She chanted those words in her head over and over again like a mantra. There was no way that he could have survived the collapse at Baction - no normal person could have. Although, Rita supposed, Raven wasn't exactly normal in the first place.

But she didn't want to get her hopes up in any case because she _knew_ that if she thought he was still alive - _hoped_ that he was still alive - it would be harder accept the fact that _he really was dead_, so she tried to focus on anything and everything that would make her forget his face. It would be easier that way.

But when Raven reappeared behind the three from the Schwann Brigade on the Heracles, she wanted to lift him up over her shoulders and throw him into the ocean, or maybe set him on fire so that he'd jump off himself. She wanted to slap him, hit him, _yell_ at him until her throat was hoarse and make him _beg for forgiveness_ for letting them think he'd _died to save their lives._

On the other hand, a part of her wanted to laugh and cry and jump and run around and freaking _hug him_ because she was just so damned _relieved_ and she'd never known what relief like that had felt like - never _would_ have known - until she met them.

It was foreign and _strange_ and she welcomed it with open arms.

She didn't hug him - even she thought it strange to do so, so she settled for a punch instead. A good, _hard_ punch. He'd be bruised and sore for days, but her fist throbbed from the feeling of hitting _flesh_.

Raven was alive. Now they just needed to bring Estelle back.


	6. Problems

Estelle was safe. Raven was alive. If anything, she should have been ecstatic and jumping for joy.

But right now, she was seriously pissed off.

It had taken them a damn long time to stop the Heracles from destroying Zaphias. They had to deal with freaking boxes and _droppin__g them on blastia!_ Even though they had tried so hard _not_ to damage the blastia, Rita could just _see_ from where they were that parts of some of them had broken off. She would have blown up about half her surroundings if everyone else hadn't stopped her.

And then they had been so close, _so freaking close_ to reaching Estelle at the top of Zaphias - Yuri had _almost_ reached her! And then Alexei - Rita didn't know what he did, but he did something with the Apatheia that sent them a flying all the way to region around Capua Nor. The one thought that resounded in her head as they all regained consciousness was:

_How the hell were they all still alive?_

And then they had to go through Zopheir, where they almost froze their asses off. Rita couldn't use her magic to keep everyone warm, either_._ Genius and skilled she may be, but even she had her limits - especially in that freezing climate. Karol, that idiot, almost got himself killed trying to protect them from that giant monster that appeared (_Baitojoh_, Rita vaguely remembers it being called by a traveller who tried to warn them). They were alive thanks to him, though, so Rita at least waited until he recovered _before_ she beat him to a pulp for making them _so damn worried_. And then Yuri, another idiot, tried to run off and save Estelle. _Without_ them.

That braindead piece of crap...!

But in the end, they finally rescued Estelle (and Rita gave her a long, long lecture afterwards about how she had begged Yuri to kill her at first and how that was a really, really stupid thing to say) and everything was all fine and dandy, fuzzy peaches _except for the giant freaking blastia_ and _the __suddenly re-emerged land-building-thing called Zaude that Alexei just summoned up from the bottom of the freaking ocean at the center of the world._

Then Yeager got in their way and there was no other option but to defeat him. He was just like Raven: dead but still living and _they killed him_ and Rita couldn't stand it because she had _seen_ the way Gauche and Droit looked at him like he was their father and now he was _dead._

And Rita hated when a family was destroyed because _she'd never had one_ and those girls saw - _they __saw the death of the closest thing __to a father __those girls had._

Soon enough Alexei stood before them with that damned Apatheia in his hand. Rita doesn't remember exactly what happened, but the next thing she remembers is the Adephagos appearing in the sky, Alexei getting crushed under Zaude's blastia, and her running away from the flying debris with everyone else _except Yuri_.

And they've been searching for_ how many_ days now? Weeks? Rita doesn't even know how long it's been - right now, finding ways to control the behaviour of air is more important. But on the other hand...

What was _with_ people _nearly dying_ and _disappearing_ these days?

_(Because with Rita Mordio, trust comes with many solutions and problems.)_

* * *

I use a lot of italics. And the word "and." And a lot of run-on sentences. Yes, I'm aware of them. No, I'm not changing them because if I change them it sounds different in my head so run-on sentences it is.

But on another note, the fruits of my research are coming along. I can't speed through Vesperia right now - on my replay I'm only at Egothor Forest and I haven't played in a while, so I've been using KaddyGamer's Youtube walkthroughs so I (hopefully) don't get any facts wrong...

And again, thank you to those who have reviewed! Without you, I would be sad. ): haha. Thank you to those who review _later_ as I keep going with this because I'm not sure I really want to keep going with these author notes (the divider line just makes everything look so _tacky_ to me).


	7. Baffled

So, Yuri was back.

Not like Rita _cared_ that much or anything. That idiot barged into her house (_again_! What was with him and the others doing that?), completely ruined her train of thought, and _embarrassed_ her! (Except, you know, it wasn't that bad but knowing Rita...) And all he did when she scolded him was give her a little apology and they all moved on as if nothing had happened, even if that was Rita's fault.

(Otherwise, Rita would have broken out in a stupid grin like she did after Raven was alive and Estelle was rescued. Thank all _gods_ no one saw her when she did, though.)

But either way, the Adephagos was more important than that because it involved _the whole goddamn world_ and risking Estelle's _life_. And with the apatheia, they could go to the Zopheir Rift to try and sort things out.

Then, for some reason, they decided to make a stop at Tor Harbour (and Rita _still_ doesn't know why) and fought Gauche and Droite and that just made Rita feel _worse_ about what happened to Yeager.

Whose _bright idea _was it to take a detour to Zaude anyway?

And Gauche asked for the compact Raven was holding - asked for something that was _important _to him!

(_And Rita knows what it's like to lose what's important-_)

But it was important to Yeager so Raven gave it to them anyway (and got Casey's bow in return) and then they were _finally_ going to Zopheir.

And everything was going fine and dandy until -

Holy_ hell._ The _apatheia _just_ gave birth_ to a_ spirit_.

Aaaand now there's a giant _squidopus_ called the _Adephagos_ looming in the sky in clear view. _Great._

_It all started with a little bit of trust; how it led to this was just baffling._


	8. Growth

She understands the way Duke can't bring himself to trust humans; she understands this very clearly.

She understands the way Duke must have felt at the the death of Elucifer. This, as well, she understands clearly. His grief at the loss of his one true friend, the pain of the empire's betrayal, the unspoken loathing she'd glimpsed before in his eyes...

And the loneliness that lingered in every step he took.

She understands much of this, but there are also things about Duke that she questions and questions until she finds herself going in the same circle and _damn it, damn it all, why does she keep frustrating herself like this?_

And during the nights she can't sleep, or when she wakes up in cold sweat gasping for breath from the nightmares of deaths that could have been-

Rita finds herself staring at the night sky, watching the stars and that one particular that always seems brighter than all the rest. She understands Duke's loneliness and hate and mistrust - knows why he chooses to remain reclusive and speak little to none - but there is this one thought that she can't help from reappearing. As insensitive as this question may be, she finds herself mulling over it.

He's lost faith in humans and he's lost his friend, but why is he being so _petty_ about it?

Not every person would get up and abandon you. Not everyone would leave you to die.

And Rita realizes with a start just how much things have changed since her childhood - how much she's changed since the day she met the people who would ultimately change her life.

Rita brings her fist to the sky and clutches it as she stares at the bright, bright star in the night sky with determination in her eyes.

Because no one, _no one_ was going to destroy the world Rita Mordio had come to love. _Ever_.

_And Rita realizes that sometimes with pain and loss, you must live, let go, trust, and grow._

_

* * *

_

Originally, I had planned for this to be a sort of 5-part story on Rita's insight during the whole game. It was going to be her childhood, meeting Yuri and the others, the Raven-Schwann fiasco, before Duke, and then after Duke... but I think I'm going to end this here. It kind of fits for an ending... doesn't it? I mean this could be seen as oh, I don't know, a few towns before they fight Duke, up to the night before. But hey, this story is supposed to be about Rita, not beating Duke.

Also, I'm ending this here because I don't know if I can come up with something after they beat Duke. I was flailing for ideas when I was writing this chapter and the last because hey, I hardly update (and I'm sorry for that) and wasn't sure how much more I would work on this. At the most, I would have two chapters after this, being up to the point before they fight Duke and after they do, but considering how short and pointless they seemed... well, I think you get the point.

A **BIG** thank you to Youtube's **KaddyGamer** (although I don't think he's even aware of this credit...) and his Tales of Vesperia walkthrough videos! I slaved over them, replaying some things and skipping things, over and over and _over_ again just to make sure I got facts and settings right. I wouldn't have been able to continue with this story if it weren't for him, seeing as I haven't touched my Vesperia in... well, a long time, to be honest. Excuses? Homework, exams, school musical (which finished in december but...), other games, laziness, and plain ol' don't feel like it.

Another big thank you to everyone who has given reviews, favourited, alerted, and just read this work! It makes me happy to see it all, and without you guys I probably would have ended things earlier and differently.

Wow, I think this is longer than the actual chapter... :P


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